Press Play: This Old Earthquake's 'Gospel Flat'

This artsy acoustic quartet from Bolinas continues to refine its distinctive brand of "West Marinicana" on this second album of sophisticated back porch music.

"Gospel Flat," recorded in the band's famously eccentric hometown, is just as spare, elegant and occasionally dark as 2009's "Portuguese Murder Ballads," the inspired debut from childhood friends Ethan Okamura and Steve Trivelpiece, both singer-songwriter-guitarists.

Original bassist Michael Burton is no longer with the band, replaced on this 11-track sophomore effort by Taylor Cutcomb on stand-up bass. With the addition of drummer Michael Pinkham, This Old Earthquake, named after a line in the Graham Parsons song "Sin City," now boasts an effective and, thankfully, unobtrusive rhythm section.

On "Gospel Flat," Okamura and Trivelpiece continue to explore subjects facing their baby boom generation. Sung in Trivelpiece's mellow baritone, "The Old Home" speaks to anyone who's tried to hold onto the family spread after the parents are gone and the family has moved on.

On songs like the existential "I'm Not Here," Okamura sings in a strange tenor whine that makes the song's poetic lyrics all the more compelling. And their odd harmonies on moody tunes like the bluesy "All Alone" are different and progressive enough to set this group apart from the average alternative folk group. Grateful Dead lyricist Peter Monk wrote the lyrics to a pair of songs, "That's Where It Lives" and "Checkmate."

On "Gospel Flats," the title track, a ghostly trumpet sounds like it escaped from a Tom Waits session. Most people familiar with Bolinas know Gospel Flat as the Bolinas farm of artist-turned-organic grower Mickey Murch.

But the tune, called "Gospel Flats" on the CD, goes beyond vague name recognition. It comments on the xenophobic hippie haven's inexorable gentrification, mentioning Horseshoe Hill, where houses sell for millions of dollars. Okamura and Trivelpiece sing about vultures circling the sky above that expensive piece of real estate, ending with the sad-but-true line, "It's the only place left up there that money can't buy."

Buy It: "Gospel Flat,"

This Old Earthquake, independent, CD Baby, $12 MP3, $15 CD.

— Paul Liberatore

If you're a musician or band from Marin with an album or EP that readers can buy or download and want to be reviewed, send your CD and contact information, (if you have an upcoming gig, let us know that, too) to Press Play, 4000 Civic Center Drive, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903.